Theme Of Oedipus The King

The Greek drama “Oedipus The King” evidently leads to the unveiling of a tragedy. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play uncovers his tragic birth story and the curse he had been baring his whole life. Oedipus is notorious for his personal insight that helped him defeat Sphinx, which lead him to becoming the king of Thebes. He is admired by the people of Thebes and is considered to be a mature, inelegant and a rational leader. From his birth, his story began with a prophecy that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Through out the play numerous people, who tell him of his unknown past, visit Oedipus. Blind to the truth he casts them away until a blind man named Therisis gives a sight of truth to Oedipus. As Oedipus learns the truth he realizes the great evil his life carries. After finding his wife and also mother hung in her bedroom, Oedipus blinds himself with the gold pins that held Jocasta’s robe. Oedipus blind to the truth is finally able to see when the old blind man visits him and tells him the truth about his life. Both metaphorically and physically sight plays a significant role in understanding the irony of a blind man seeing the truth while Oedipus who isn’t blind doesn’t seem to the truth that’s right in front of him.

In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, the element of fate versus freewill shows up frequently all through the play. It is foreseen to Oedipus' parents, Jocasta and Laius, that their child would grow up to slaughter his father and wed his mother. Jocasta and Laius endeavor to dispose of their child, however, fate triumphs. Oedipus' fate all through the play has been chosen by the fate which adds to his annihilation. Various societies and cultures all through history have embraced similar perspectives, accepting a fate or destiny for their lives. Such points of view are very common is Greek myths who had confidence in "the three Fates" — goddesses who controlled the lives of individuals and the world in general. Clotho the youngest spins the thread of human life. She decides who will be born and when. Lachesis, a matron, measures the thread deciding a person’s lot in life. She is shown with a measuring stick, a scroll, a book, or a globe that represents the horoscope. Atropos, the oldest, choses the mechanism of death and ends the life of each mortal by cutting their thread. She is usually portrayed with a cutting instrument, a scroll, a wax tablet, a sundial, or a pair of scales. Even in modern day, some Christian philosophies incorporate destiny as fate. Many Jews acknowledge that their God has an arrangement for their people and nation.

When you think of blindness you think of sight and when you think of ignorance you think of knowledge. Throughout the play Oedipus, sight and blindness imagery is very noticeable, along with ignorance and knowledge. Sophocles creates Oedipus as a character of ignorance, confidence, and good insight. The story starts out as Oedipus is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. The oracle told the parents that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. The parents refused to let this happen and sent the servant to pin Oedipus’s feet together and leave him on the mountain to die. The messenger knew this was not right and stepped in immediately to help the poor child. As Oedipus grew older he found out the truth about his life and why certain things happened. Over time, Oedipus's blindness shows him the lack of knowledge he knew about his true life story.

In Sophocles play Oedipus the King, Sophocles depicts the horrible fate of Oedipus, a pompous, arrogant young ruler. The story begins in the Greek town of Thebes. A plague has descended upon the Thebians causing death and famine throughout the land. Oedipus, being the heroic king, takes full responsibility to find out the cause of their aliments. While working to discover the source of the plague, Oedipus stumbles upon the tragic truth of his heritage and the horrifying implications of his appointment to the throne. Unfortunately for Oedipus, everything ends in tragedy. With the suicide of his mother/wife and the self-inflicted blindness followed by exile from Thebes, Oedipus paved the path to his own

The Greek play, Oedipus the King, shows how easy it is for a man to fall apart, while trying to make things right. Sophocles’ tragedy tells the story of Oedipus, a regular man turned king of Thebes. Throughout the tragedy, Oedipus searches for the cause of the chaos and havoc encompassing his land; however, he discovers that he is the one responsible for the hardships plaguing Thebes. As the tragedy continues, Sophocles’ exposes a dark side to power, fame, and ambition. Further, Sophocles’ exposes the fear that many have of the truth, and exposes the grave danger in hiding from it.

Tragedy can either be the darkest part of life for one person or it can be a learning opportunity for the other person. Of all the tragedies written in the literate, “Oedipus the King” written by ‘Sophocles’ is one of the oldest and the most prominent tragedy written till date. It is the story of the king, who is brutally left to die by his own parents, luckily survived, unknowingly killed his own father and married his mother. Although this story was written 2000 years ago, but it still has a great significance in the modern world. Of the most powerful tragedies of the time, “Oedipus the king” discloses such values and situations as parental aggression, child abandonment, self-confidence, ability to handle trauma, and parent-child intimate relationship that people are struggling with in today’s world. Sophocles reveals these behaviours and incidents through the actions of Oedipus.

Oedipus 's beginning is smoggy to begin with for the audience, as they soon realize, he barely knows much of it

Josephine Pinnock Mrs. Brady AP Literature and Composition 1 October 2014 Sophocle’s Oedipus the King follows Oedipus, ruler of the dilapidated Greek city, Thebes. Sophocles carries his audience on a journey through Oedipus’ past and how it unravels to reveal that that Oedipus’ fate is inevitable. Because of this, Oedipus faces extreme grief and suffering. It is through this suffering, however, that Oedipus discovers his origins, and ultimately who he is.

Oedipus the King, Sophocles’ classical Greek tragedy, presents tragic flaw(s) as the cause of  the near-total destruction of the life of the protagonist. This essay examines that flaw.

Sophocles’ writing style in the play, Oedipus the King, offers incredible insight into the ways that authors utilize recurring symbols to create motif in their plays and writings. This particular play uses a blend of irony, wit, and metaphor to create a literary motif. Sophocles explores the literal aspects of sight and blindness, in the form of knowledge and oblivion. Through recurring symbols of sight and blindness, both literal and metaphorical, Sophocles creates a motif that illustrates the painful dramatic irony in the play Oedipus the King.

I intend to research how ignorance contributes to the downfall of Oedipus and his biological mother, Jocasta, in Oedipus Rex1, by Sophocles. During my research, I began with my most urgent question, Is Oedipus responsible for his demise and is it self-inflicted? I chose to use Bernard Knox’s work, Oedipus at Thebes,2 to answer this question because he addresses the conditionality of the events in Oedipus, and how Oedipus’s actions are not products of fate. With a deeper evaluation of his work, I hope to understand the cause and effect of the major events of the play.

The stories of ancient Greek mythology are famous up until our time. There is something about them, which will draw the reader into the story. “Oedipus the king”, written by Sophocles is one of those epic poems, in ancient Greek. Even though the story is thousands of years old, people enjoy reading them today. The involvement of Gods and godlike heroes, the prophecies, humans and their flaws, and scandalous behaviors create so much entertainment for the reader. They are so spectacularly dramatized, that several movie makers even made movies about them. The captivating, and at the same time very disturbing aspect, that Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother is an act in itself. The beginning of Oedipus’ fate, Jocasta’s loyalty to the

Oedipus’ evolution throughout the Theban plays is one with fascinating twists and turns. Oedipus’ characterisation evolves and changes as he experiences the fall from being the great ruler of Thebes into a blind beggar who is tortured by what he did. As the stories progress, so does their protagonist to the point where the Oedipus of the second play is a completely different man. In Oedipus Rex, the main character is portrayed as a strong and clever yet arrogant king whose ignorance leads him to his downfall while in Oedipus at Colonus, he is a changed man who has accepted that his fate is out of his control and who respects the gods’ influence on human life.

Oedipus Rex1, by Sophocles is an ancient Greek play about the tragic tale of a man named Oedipus who unknowingly fulfilled a prophecy claiming he would kill his father and bed his mother. I intend to research how ignorance contributes to the downfall of Oedipus and his biological mother and wife Jocasta, in Sophocles, Oedipus Rex. My original thought on the play were that Oedipus is not a victim of fate, but rather responsible for his own actions involving the fulfillment of the prophecies. There are three major side characters that provide opportunities for Oedipus to learn the truth, Teiresias, Creon, and Jocasta, as well as intentional setting for the play that provides foreshadow. I plan to evaluate these influences to understand the cause and effect of Oedipus’s actions.

Has anyone ever thought about who created great plays where the audience knew what happened before the characters did? Sophocles’ created very intriguing plays, one of them was Oedipus the King. In the play Oedipus killed his father not knowing it was him because he got new parents because his parents wanted him dead because of the prosthesis of him marrying his mother and killing his father. He put a bunch of curses on the person who killed the king (his father) and banished them too. After finding out it was him he stabbed his eyes out and left the city. Another play he wrote was called Antigone. In the play, Antigone goes against Creon’s commands on not barring her brother because apparently he was a traitor. She was sentenced to death because it was a rule,but they did not know it was her at first because a woman obeys what a man says. Creon realized he made a mistake, but her was too late. The theme that could be used today that the author was trying to say is that someone may not be physically blind, but they can also not see what is going on around them or someone may be physically blind but they know what is going on around them.